Cybersmart pre-service teacher program caused me to reflect on children's misuse of the Internet. There are several key issues when researching cybersafety for children. It is important to educate children on the risks of being on the internet, and to incorporate this within the curriculum.
Cybersmart pre-service teacher program caused me to reflect on children's misuse of the Internet. There are several key issues when researching cybersafety for children. It is important to educate children on the risks of being on the internet, and to incorporate this within the curriculum.
Cybersmart pre-service teacher program caused me to reflect on children's misuse of the Internet. There are several key issues when researching cybersafety for children. It is important to educate children on the risks of being on the internet, and to incorporate this within the curriculum.
During our EDFD462 Week 11 classes, we participated in the Cybersmart Pre
Service Teacher Program. This program caused me to critically reflect childrens misuse of the internet, and the serious implications this can have for teachers, parents and students if ignored. Greg (the facilitator) presented several scenarios within our tutorial, and the resulting impact on our class was that we became aware of the legal ramifications that can be presented as teachers if we do not carefully ensure that we take adequate care and responsibility for ensuring student safety. This can become a greater issue as we seek to ensure student safety, as we must ensure that we also consider and respect parental desires (especially considering student use of underage Facebook). There are several key issues when researching cybersafety for children. Firstly, it was clear that students need to be aware of their own responsibilities and knowing what to do when things go wrong (Daly, 2010, p. 43). It was made evident by Daly (2010) that children often do not disclose issues that occur over the internet due to a fear that they will be banned from the computer, internet or electronic device. This is making cyberspace issues more secretive, and thus harder to solve or even find out. Furthermore, this danger is greatened due to parental lack of understanding. Daly (2010) states that parents often do not know what their child is actually doing on the computer (p. 43), and often do not understand how they could be bullied by being on it (p.43). This suggests that not only is there an issue with children and cybersafety, but through a lack of parental understanding of what their children are doing and how to make sure it is safe, the risk of children entering into unsafe situations is heightened. There are two important outcomes that have arisen from the Cybersmart Pre Service Teacher Program and research surrounding the cybersafety. Firstly, it is important to educate children on the risks of being on the internet, and to incorporate this within the curriculum. One possibility is when teaching persuasive texts within English is to incorporate online sites, and to talk about how people and advertising can also manipulate and persuade us, and how to stay safe. Furthermore it is also important to ensure parents are involved in cybersafety of students, as Greg made us aware that the highest time for students to be on the internet is late hours of the night, when they are in their own homes. This may require teachers to hold seminars and workshops that teach parents about the dangers, sites they may visit and assist parents with ensuring that their children remain safe. Greg also made us aware of lesson plans that are available to teachers that can assist with helping students become aware of the dangers on the internet. In future placements I will actively look for opportunities to implement these in my teaching as have now been made aware of the serious implications of technology and the internet on children.
References Daly, K. (2010). Being Cybersafety Aware. Screen Education, (58), 42-46.